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Juneteenth in Days

(x = space)

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Juneteenth in Days

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Juneteenth

Again

It’s coming

Don’t you like the sound

There might be

A proclamation

Somewhere

But we know how it sounds

It sounds for freedom

Ring a bell

On the day

Those who know

Shall know

And shall proclaim

Inside the heart

That this was a good day

A needful day

Against the tragedy

Of people

Who possess the sin

Believing

We may own another person

Other people

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Treating

Counting them

As assets

Treating them

Like harvest

From the field

Or the factory

While building

Cities

Homely or large

Across the nation

In the heart

Of the land

And air and water

So many things

That should be willing

At no cost

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Burn

Then

For freedom

Have good days

And set

Domestic fires

Carefully

For warmth

And for tomorrow

The twentieth

And then midsummer

And all seasons

To be free

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolf Zimmermann on Unsplash

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Remembrance of Things and People Past

(x = space)

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Remembrance of Things and People Past

(Memorial Day 2023)

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My grandfather was a doughboy

Another one

(I knew him more)

Cooked for the

Army in

The second war

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My father served

In the war that followed

The war no one remembers

But cost lives

Of bodes and the souls therein

And for lack of

Remembering

Because remembering

Matters much

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It’s a thought

A salute

And a parade

To visit flags on graves

Before we shop

Before we picnic

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Mind you

Shopping and picnicking

Ain’t bad

Rights and privileges

Secured

Silly to you

Perhaps

There’s also watching war movies

On TCM

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Arcane remembrances

We still make war movies

We still shop

And eat outside

Save rain

To drive companionship

Inside

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Be inside

Be there

Be aware

Remembrance is a near miss

From experience

What follows war

Was bought for us

Our own secular

Allegiances

And promise

In significant

And blessed silly

Existence

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God bless peace

And forestall war

And keep us faithful

To each other

More so to you

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wesley Mc Lachlan on Unsplash

Corning, Corning, United States

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A Simple Faith

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A Simple Faith

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A simple faith

That says

I love you

God

I know that you

Love me

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Help me

To love the world

You made

The child you gave

To save it

Keep me

Not giving in

Except to you

In faith

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Let goodness

Not be slight

Or slighted

Not by me

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Help me to love

My family

And friends

And stranger I have yet

To meet

Or never shall

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Pearls

And swine

Doves

And serpents

Not to cast with

Or to invoke

But to be reminded

Of my worth

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You are God

Deserving all that

God is due

But I must take you

Day by day

It seems

To love you best

Your world

To my listening ear

And the people

Here

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While we are here

‘Til there

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C L Couch

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“This Is My Father’s World” is cited and adapted

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Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash

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Timothy Keller

(x = space)

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Timothy Keller

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The author of

The Prodigal God

Has died

I’m sorry

Though we know

Where he is going

He was good

At challenging

What we know

By using

What we know

Take the Bible story

Of the brothers

And their father

He tasks us

To consider

Problems and virtues

In each attitude

And then reminds us

That the final action’s

Missing

Which is do all three meet

Together

For the feast

Provided

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C L Couch

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Timothy James Keller (September 23, 1950 – May 19, 2023) was an American Calvinist pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist. He was the chairman and co-founder of Redeemer City to City, which trains pastors for service around the world. He was also the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of The New York Times bestselling . . . [beginning of Wikipedia entry]

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By Z thomas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67989122

Milano, Cimitero monumentale, edicola Galbiati (“Il figliol prodigo”, scultore Enrico Butti, 1885).

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Monday Possibilities

(x = space)

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Monday Possibilities

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God is love

God is a spirit

God is a lion

Too

And a rock

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Not a rock

Though we might paint

“Jesus Saves”

On one

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There was such a place

I was ridden by

Then drove by

While I was growing up

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A rock

Next to a pool

A stream

Some kind of moving water

Because

The place looked dark and fresh

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“Jesus Saves”

Why

Yes

He does

God who is that spirit

And that love

Even a lion

Helps to make it so

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There is a trinity

A kind of multiplicity

Who knows how

Wide the

Godhead

In all the dimensions

When day by day

In all our wandering

We know barely more

Than three

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A kind of multiplicity

Is God

That made the rock

And made the paint

(though did not sell it

though somebody

could)

But doesn’t sleep

xxxxxThat’s energy

xxxxxInside the Earth

xxxxxAwaiting

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I guess it’s Monday

I’m thinking about

The possibilities

While I have mean neighbors

But friendly faces

In my life

To recall

At will

And call with real immanence

As well

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Where is the lion

But in a free place

Offering

(a big paw)

An invitation

For us

There

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C L Couch

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Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

A statue on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

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World Bee Day

(x = space)

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World Bee Day

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No be

Without the bees

(probably a pun

only in English

sorry)

Better living only

With chemicals

I don’t think so

We’ll poison ourselves

There are bloated

Tragic

Precedents

(Bhopal, Deep Horizon, the Valdez)

When we could cooperate

With bees

And live

Everything that can live

Be alive

Our round bears show the way

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C L Couch

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Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

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Sing Earth and Celebrate

(x = space)

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Sing Earth and Celebrate

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Shall we celebrate

Shall

We dance

Or tap affirmative

While sipping

To the side?

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It is an open day

Sky for a ceiling

Though we can make canopies

And later

Light candles

For the bugs

(I mean citronella

or the like

safely

not to kill them

but keep them away

where they might dance

in dark

safe places)

x

Unsure about the music

We could argue

For

A bit of everything

And as for food

Can start with stones

Then

Enter friendly rivalry

For dishes from

Here

Or there

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There should be

Volume

For talking

And volume as enough

For everyone

And let the children sleep

Near

Or under

Tables

To which

And for whom we brought

Sleeping rolls and mattresses

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And

Yes

There might be plots

In the dark

Remembering

Our traitors were invited

Too

But

Try to be friendly

People

We will have had

This one chance

For Earth

On Earth

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C L Couch

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Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash

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amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

(x = space)

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amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

(you can sing it)

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there were good hymns

in church

and a couple that were sleepy

the sermon was terrific

for being true and in style easy

as if we could believe

afterward

and live it through the new week that

all this was meant to serve

amen

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c l couch

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photo by channel 82 on unsplash

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Mom’s Day

(x = space)

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Mom’s Day

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When she was alive

And I had friends on campus

I got notes from her

From time to time

And a card on Mother’s Day

Sometimes for Father’s Day

She could get confused

She was a cat

Who when sick

Or when we were moving

I brought to my office

To let her sleep under the desk

Or rub my face

When I was working

As was her way

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And to make friends of peers

Students

Even the cleaning staff

Who were friendly people

So was she

She couldn’t be a mother

But she let me

From time to time

Be a mother

(also a father, keeper, friend, target)

And sent me notes and cards

For Mom’s Day

And other reasons

When I was on campus

And had friends there

While she was a good friend

A cat-child

In all places

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happy Mom’s Day to all moms

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C L Couch

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Photo by Valeria Zoncoll on Unsplash

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